I’m the first to admit that bloggers trying to claim they’re bloggers by posting up videos of UK artists have had their time, sites such as Media Massacre and more so GrimeDaily have set a precedent that others may try but simply will NOT reach!!! Anything worth knowing about in terms of UK acts will definitely be featured in one of the above, not to discredit everyone but the newcomers trying to set the trend….. It won’t happen!!

That said, every once in a while there will come a time where I come across some talent that just HAS to get a feature on the blog coz they’re just causing a wave of momentum. Youngs TefLon has been spitting for a while, although he started on Grime, he has evolved into arguably one of the UK Underground Scene’s best rappers, the title of most consistent would be hard to deprive Tef of.

From his free mixtape, ‘Tef London’, to the highly anticipated Mixtape ‘Grown Man Ting’ that caused a wave of excitement across the underground to now another mixtape so soon, named ‘Call Of Duty Mixtape’ which is once again credible work. Not to mention the amount of underground videos on various UK websites and DVD’s, if you can find an artist that has consistently dropped ardbody mixtapes, emotional music and dropped a bag of videos like Youngs has in the last 12 months it would take some deep thorough thought, one which I still have yet to find a response to!!!

Once again Youngs has done it in probably one of his best songs, in MY opinion, make of it what you want and expect alot more from Youngs TefLon, big up Hill Productions and Carns and Hanz.

Ok so, lets cut the long ting… Skepta dissin Wiley, SNM!! Then Ghetts reviewing Skepta’s, Bashy’s and Wileys albums.. Then SN1’s Giggs collaborates with Mike Skinner on probably the most commercially credible tune from Giggs to date, in a deep, meaninful, relative-to-the-times song called ‘Slow Songs’ happy viewing.. and by the way, I’m BACK!!!

I don’t mean to carry on going on about this ‘Its-Alot Gate’ scenario however I saw this and found it particularly interesting and made me think was Temps’s reaction towards Grim at Eskimo dance pre-empted. I.e. Was he in the frame of mind that if Griminal brought it in any way towards him, he was prepared to react physically?

You’ll see why I say that when you watch the video for yourself, in Temps’s defence there are some unwritten laws of lyrical clashes, and the ‘suck your Mum’ talk doesn’t really get respect *Vybes Kartel Vs Mavado at Sting 2008 springs to mind, Vybez was on top until the crowd turned on him after he said that to Mavado* so where Temps had heard the SBTV (video below in another post) and he heard how Grim was talkin, for man to say that face to face was literally ALOT!!

I am choosing to refer to this situation as ‘ItsAlot-Gate.’ The situation that started as a mere fued between Griminal and Jammer has now culminated in physical violence not between the two themselves but Griminal and Slew Dem Crew’s Tempa T.

One slang phrase, that is not even actually a word (alot) has made people outside of the Grime scene once again look upon the scene in disgust with a patronising ‘I told you so’ attitude. When you think all this started over one word it seems petty but knowing that there is pride, credibility and much more at stake, some MC’s are not prepared to get parred easily by their peers.

Here’s how it started!!!

Griminal released a free promotional mixtape called Not Just Bars Vol 1 which built up lots of momentum and hype around Griminal who at the time was arguably one of, if not the best younger MC, alongside Chipmunk, Double S and say… Dot Rotten? On that mixtape, probably the biggest tune on in was a track called ‘It’s Alot’ which has been a big slang word for the last few years. The track was getting spun on radio, in raves, it was literally what it said on the tin, it WAS alot!

Hear Griminal’s ‘It’s Alot’ here…

Months later, Jammer, out of nowhere released a track, ironically *cough cough* titled ‘It’s Alot.’ So the same slang word was relayed in the chorus. Now Marcus Nasty, Griminal’s older brother had already had beef with Jammer back in the day and punched Jammer up so this move from Jammer wasn’t the smartest and could be taken with the upmost disrespect considering he wasn’t even cool with the N.A.S.T.Y crew after he got kicked out. So, Jammer didn’t stop there by just making a tune, he literally killed it, had T-Shirts printed with ‘Its Alot’ embezzled over them and other merchandise.

Watch Jammer’s ‘It’s Alot’ here…

Understandably, Griminal was pissed as Jammer blatently tried to par him which then made it difficult for Grim to then release a track in the same genre, with the same title, as the video and merchandising route had been exploited by Jammer so indirectly people may have been purchasing merchandise on the back of Griminal’s track and not Jammer’s, i.e. Griminal made the phrase big, Jammer ate P’s!!

The next step didn’t involve either Jammer or Griminal but it was directly related to the situation. At a time when the ‘Its Alot’ madness had slightly died down, Westwood had a radio set with Jammer, Tempa T, Ghetts and Brutal amongst others appearing.

The set was cool until about 6 minutes in (6.18) and Tempa T comes in with ‘It’s a par, it’s a par, them man goin round saying it’s a lot, but us man know it’s a par, it’s a par!’ which was directed at Grim. Tempa T’s involvement came from his affiliation with Jammer for one, but also for the fact that he claims the slang actually came from HIS crew so neither of them should really be squabbling about it however Jammer had more right than Grim to use it! In typical Ghetts fashion, he couldn’t let that happen as Griminal is his boy and he has too much machido to let that slide. So he went in against them, and even went to freestyle ‘Its Alot, It’s Alot I swear you man borrowed that from Josh, from Greengate don’t think I won’t back it, I swear you man borrowed that from Josh.’

At 10.27 Tempa T then claimed he schooled Griminal in a rave, a claim that came back to haunt him later!! He also said that he don’t wanna hear Ghetts say nothing about ‘It’s Alot,’ to which Ghetts replied, ‘It’s Alot!!!’

Ok, that was that. Then Ghetts released his highly anticipated mixtape/album ‘Freedom Of Speech’ and one of the hardest tracks was ‘Threats’ which featured Brutal and Griminal, Grim’s verse contained the lyrics directed towards Jammer “Man wanna copy the sh*t that I write, now it’s got grim on a hype ting again, one or two guys I’m not liking again, Jammer don’t want me fi start writing again, you’re not heavy! Marcus banged you already, what!? Wanna fight him again?”

Threats..

The event that followed that was Ghetto’s Launch Party at Dirty Canvas when Griminal and Jammer clashed on stage, watch the footage here..

It went quiet for long, hence the assumption from the masses that this scenario was dead and buried until earlier this year when a SB.TV video was released (scroll down on the blog for that video). Griminal went in HARD at Temps!! ‘tell them man there suck ya Mum!!’

All this has culminated in bringing us where we are today. Pride is a fickle thing and for the sake of not only the artists, but the Grime scene in general MC’s need to start realising there is more than just MCing to life!! Call it melodramatic but for a mother to lose a son over a word that DOESN’T even exist would literally be ALOT! Say no more!!

Keep your eyes peeled to the home of Grime for any updates on the latest going’s ons!! http://grimeforum.com

Thanks to an old school friend I had the privelege of goin into a local Secondary School and speak to youngsters about entreprenuership, university, college, school, decision making, money making and so on…

It was definately inspiring seeing the children so attentive and interested in what I, and the others had to say.

I will definately be doing more of such work in the future.

Here’s some press-cuttings.. They tried to label me a ‘music journalist’ but I got much more than just music in my journalistic locker!! Watch out for http://itsalotmagazine.com edition2 coming very soon and you’ll see what I mean!!

The campaign is called ACTION = REACTION (Every action has a reaction)

Front Page Shizzle!! LOL

You should be able to click the picture and zoom in and read the article..

Sway addresses issues that occured within the music industry last year as well as personal things that affected him. This shi* is kinda contraversial but still Sway manages to drop some big lines throughout the clear vent of frustration, though delivered in a suttle manner with an emotive tone of voice; ‘2008’s become my last year // Lets dedicate a prayer to some of us who aren’t here // We never had a summer, it was such a dark year // Estelle managed to shine so I guess we’re half there // I blew 26 candles off a cake // Shed a tear so had to take the bandana off my face .//’

As well as addressing the UMA madness and the credit crunch, he also speaks onthe deceased and misfortunes in the industry.

ANYBODY KNOW WHO he’s talking about at 2.30min????? Comments below!!!

I saw Sway perform this at I Luv Live early in March, HOWEVER his lyrics were slightly different, in the video below he says something @ 1:16 like; ‘See i’m gonna make it by any means // Last year I buried peeps // And my press agent’s gonna hate this when I say this // My aim is // Not to make enemies with NME // But what the fuc* can you do when you’re reviewed by a racist // His name was Gavin Hayes // And he referred to my lost one and dead homies // I gotta take this!!!! //

Yeah.. It’s DEEP!!

In this one, he goes hard at the end.. But before that he performs ‘Pray For Kaya’ which was dedicated to his deceased best friend Kaya Bousquet aka Queen of Clubs R.I.P.